I wanted to share one quick thought with you before I begin my journey today (it's 3:45 am on Friday, March 14 and I can't sleep because I'm so excited about leaving!).

Marina Topol, the director of Road of Life Family Homes (ROL) and I had talked last fall about trying to do something special for the residents and graduates of ROL. She had suggested an overnight retreat to a camp outside the city. When we estimated the cost of the retreat it came to between $800-$1000 for the 30 of us to attend. That seems like a lot of money to me, but to God, it was just a drop in the bucket. Almost before Dr. Hawley, my pastor at Emmanuel Baptist Church, could contact the missions committee about my using that amount out of the Russia Missions Fund, a donor came to him with $1000 for me to "do something special" with.

Since December of 2006, there have been several large donations given to this fund for specific use in Russia missions, and God continues to bless us as we have helped to fund the renovations at the new apartment for ROL, and now have the opportunity to spend this special time with these wonderful, Christian young people.

We plan to leave on Friday, April 18 to spend the night at the camp, then spend the day together on Saturday, returning home Saturday night so that we can all be in our home churches on Sunday mornng. This will be another opportunity for your prayerful support, as I will be leading two devotions - one on faith and one on prayer.

So mark your calendar - and don't forget the 9-hour time difference!

Your not-so-well-rested-but-ready-to-go missionary :) Nancy